Modern Rant on too many Bannings

Wizards needs to stop banning and print less.

Thats the systemic part of things.

Banning only removes the immediate pain/problem. It devolves the game into a state where the solution to the strongest deck in the meta is to ban something in it.

You see this all the time, everyone recommending a card they lost to.


One question wizards likes to ask in surveys is what do you enjoy in the game.

I am sure there are other reasons to like the game, art, the stock marketesque behaviour of the value of thhe cards... but more than anything (at least based on tournament magic) is the feeling winning.

Fundamentally players love to win, more than building decks. More than learning how to beat a deck. This is why everyone flocks to the lastest and greatest (before it gets banned), whilst at the same time complaining "its so broken".


I think modern was always broken. You can read all my postings and I have been consistent. Modern is a format of flux. Or bannings if you like. If modern as a format is too weak, would you say it was broken? I would because every willy nilly that is respectably strong will prove too strong. Modern is like a person with a weak immune system, it has very low tolerance and defences are down. What happens when a strong flu comes by? BAM.


I think the mistake WOTC made was to indulge in bannings. Bannings used to be sacred with Aaron. I think the floodgates open with Eldrazi Winter.


Eldrazi Winter marked the beginning of the slide downwards. Eldrazi Winter was the most fun I had in modern! I have always argued that the problem was that they unleashed an archetype ( which had multiple variants) of decks. So it was never one deck the community was up against, but a whole possible slew of decks. All strong. It was beautiful watching the meta. It was beautiful because there WERE people trying to beat the best decks. And they  won! Its just that each time they learnt how to beat one deck another rose in a quick clip, and even then Team Oath matched it. Its just that the "bruces" in the community (Bruce Banner... get it? never mind) were up in arms baying for blood, never allowing for hard fought victories to be celebrated. We have a pretty toxic community.

What wizards really did with the release of the Oath Eldrazis is to up the power level required in the game.

Now Power level is a completely different argument. Modern as a card pool can by now support pretty high power levels. I would argue that it can compete with Legacy (some have observed this, that a strong modern deck can hold its own against at least some Legacy decks).

So the real question is what level does WOTC want to pitch modern at.

I think this is the part that WOTC has been failing abysmally at.

They have been unclear. It is okay if they ban what they did in Eldrazi Winter. Thats fine. It how they did it. They made it appear that they are giving in to whiner's requests. And that has only made it worse.

Modern is WOTC's game. From Modern Horizons and the establishment of Pioneer. To me this is indicative thhat WOTC wants pioneer to take on the role that modern did (essentially to hand hold Standard players moving on to older formats). But Modern has grown up as a card pool. WOTC printing Modern Horizons is very  fitting and fun! And it seems to have raised the power level again. But again the community is unable to accept it. I think there are 4 reasons for it:

1) Printing too fast
2) Banning too fast
3) Toxic Community
4) Lack of Innovation/ Net Decking


1) This I mentioned earlier. Printing too much changes the meta too quickly. Magic players have historically been slow to react to a meta. See Necro Summer, see Academy/Combo Winter or any instance in the past when a card was dominating (oh even JTMS). By printing too fast you can't really determine if a particular card is broken since, before it can be addressed someting new "breaks the format" (aside: and why do you think the format keeps getting broken? its too weak... and lacks the tools and depth).

2) Banning too fast. These days a week or two is all it needs to get the bruces up in arms calling for bans bans bans. Oh have you ever notice some of these guys get into the older formats and start calling for bans? 0.0 Thing is if you keep banning, the decks never evolve and get strong. Does it seem strange to you that some decks are ALWAYS there. Ya they would be something else if there were less bans since they would be forced to evolve. So its always the same old decks getting killed by the new deck then WOTC bans the new deck.... Banning too fast quickly perpetuates the problem, it does not fix it. The new card gets scapegoated. There is also the criteria for banning which has gotten more and more rediculous over time. Too much time taken, ban it for the tournament but not the format! People do not like it? That is completely subjective and stupid (sry can't not call a spade a spade here). Ban it cos it is in every deck??? I mean... it just means the card ishigh in utility not broken. Sure you do not want too many cards like that, but to straight out ban just for that reason... that like banning the card because people actually want to play with it (not like its even winnng tournaments 0.0)

3) Toxic community. Nothing to see or do here. People will say what they want to say. Just have a mind of your own when you read these comments (even what you read here ;)). THOUGH! Getting rid of data was a very big step! During Eldrazi Winter there were 3-4 variants of ELdrazi, each taking a share of the meta, but they were all lumped as one. Legacy players should be familiar with this accusation, all the decks with brainstorms are one single deck ya? right. Data my foot. Another portion of the toxic community is that of public and popular writer fueling th echo chamber with their opinions. Just today, there are murmerings that a ban announcement can no longer be "no change" but something MUST be banned or something MUST be unbanned. That is just an opinion of the writer trying to influence the denizens of the echo chamber. WOTC can very announce "NO CHANGE" the reason is purely PR, to indicate to the community that they are still there. And more IMPORTANTLY THEY DECIDED that blah blah. On their time, on their terms. This is something WOTC has given up over the last few years, the authority that they have over the bannings. The bannings are now a circus of what comes out of the echo chamber of "players" who my or may not contribute to the bottomline mind you.


4) Lack of Innovation/ Net Decking. People like to win. That is the biggest reason the whiners are whining. Plus they don't like to think! So net decking is the perfect drug for our ailments. WHat happens when there is a dominant deck? Well kill it of course! Just look at the flurry of activity in forums to see what people's priorities are. Clue: its not building decks. This is also why removing is strangly the right move to fuel innovation. Data mostly lets you know match up results so that you know which decks do best, thats how you can refine your deck too when you make changes and compare it with how it fares. HOWEVER. When that data is released to everyone, just remember people do not like to think, so they will just take that latest greatest deck and run with it! So when a new dominant deck seems to be putting up numbers and meta share in a tournament or a set of tournaments for the month. It is really meaningless. Since, its new and no one if trying to beat it + all the net deckers will ensure that it takes a big metashare. Law of big numbers ensure that a sizable number make it to day 2. So really the data is almost tailor made to mislead because of how players react to it. Hence restricting data is a good control in today's internet speed of information dissemination. The act of allowing "free flow no restriction" release of data, and not putting their own interpretation of said data, has a good percentage of culpability in todays' predicament.


I do not think the problems of modern are solvable anytime soon... I do believe the detractor will eventually leave. If WOTC leaves the power level alone (and have some unbannings) it will become another legacy level powered format. I think making modern a standard level powered format is not feasible (this is true for pioneer as well), the reason for this is a paradox. Power sells. The key to remember is power is often overated. The Lotuses and Moxes of VIntage are NOTHING if there was'nt a restriction on certain cards... certain relatively new cards... so power level is one thing, printing the cards to bring things into balance is another. Modern or any other growing format will never be just standard powered forever (since standard is really just a block format 0.0). If WOTC depowers Modern, I think it will be irrelevant over time since there is no reason to play it. For people who like a lower power level there is standard and pioneer (the new modern). Modern has outlived its role. It can still stay relevant by being something other than legacy (which is very possible).

I believe cardpool wise a modern deck can compete with legacy, so modern can still be a relevant format, if WOTC bans less (the lease they can do if they are not going to print less).


Hmmm well another radical way to "fix" mordern, would be to auto ban all new standard sets. The cards will be fixed then and no new cards will get introduced. This is assuming the current power level is something everyone wants including WOTC.

If new sets keep entering Modern's power level will keep going up and we will keep seeing bannings for as long new sets keep coming... this is a rather strange predicament.

And new set must always push the envelope, at least for some sets, or else interest will wane, so printing only weak cards is not a solution, it only SCAMs the individuals who bought those sets and later get crushed in modern 0.0


Anyway that is my rant.